Devil May Cry walkthrough/M04
Black Knight is the fourth mission in Devil May Cry. Walkthrough (lower difficulties) Dante starts outside the cathedral, where he acquired Alastor. The first thing to do is to re-enter the cathedral to start Secret Mission 2: Phantom Baby. In this mission Dante is placed in the Cathedral and has 30 seconds to kill 100 Phantom Babies for the mission's first Blue Orb Fragment. This mission can be deliberately failed to grind for Red Orbs, though since each spider is only worth 1 it is not very efficient. With this done, proceed back down the hallway: after a short walk, Dante is ambushed by Phantom crawling down the corridor from the direction of the cathedral. In this form the creature can only use his fireball attacks and a double claw swipe. The simplest way to deal with him is to simply dash into the door to the courtyard, which will cause Phantom to de-spawn. Fighting him is possible too, particularly if the player has Air Raid: he has much lower health than before, and defeating him earns Dante 500 Red Orbs. Phantom will barge his way up the corridor constantly shooting fireballs until he is just in front of the door to the hangar, where he will stop moving and constantly attack. The best way to defeat him is to knock his fireballs back at him using High Time: the timing for this takes a little practice, with the time to start the move being just as the sound of Phantom charging up the fireball stops. Once Phantom is defeated or despawned, the player should have Dante proceed down the hall to the small room with the Divinity Statue. This starts Secret Mission 3: Phantom Baby II. Once again Dante must kill 100 Phantom Babies, but this time with only 20 seconds on the clock and without using weapons, with only walking over them to squash them being acceptable: it is best to use Devil Trigger to speed up Dante's movement for this. The Phantom Babies can be Taunted to build up the DT Gauge if Dante is running low. Success will grant Dante another Blue Orb Fragment. With this done, return to the courtyard (the corridor will now contain either Marionettes or Sin Scissors) and examine the forcefield around the lion statue: the Pride of Lion will allow Dante to dispel it. The statue can then be attacked until it is destroyed. Destroying the lion statue unleashes a new demon, the Shadow. In Easy Automatic mode it will instead be two Sin Scythes, which can be fought in a similar way to the Sin Scissors already encountered. They have a much wider range of attacks, including throwing their scythe in a boomerang fashion, but are actually more vulnerable to the Shotgun since they routinely throw their weapons and leave themselves completely open to attack. If fighting the Shadow, on the other hand, after the cutscene the player should immediately have Dante dodge, as it starts out partway though its powerful Guillotine attack. The Shadow is a cat-like demon which is immune to melee weapon damage in its current state and will perform an automatic counter against any melee attack. It has several attacks: it can perform the already-seen Guillotine, spinning in the air before crashing down to the ground, and turn into a form resembling a Venus flytrap to bite at Dante. At long range it can transform its body into a long spear which extends almost instantaneously: if Dante can jump on the spear while it is extended, he can deal damage to the Shadow's core with his guns without having to expose it. By using Devil Trigger and shots from Ebony & Ivory, it is possible to reduce a Shadow to its dying state in a single instance of standing on the spear. It can also enter an invincible "shadow" state where it is just a flat form on the ground with glowing red eyes: it uses this form to either evade damage, reposition itself, or perform an attack where it conjures dark spears up from the ground. Once it takes enough damage from Dante's guns (Devil Trigger Ebony & Ivory shots will take it down quickly) it will turn into a spherical glowing core. This is vulnerable to sword attacks and immune to gun attacks, but will generate the dark spear attack at Dante's feet. Using Stinger repeatedly will push the core backwards with each hit and ensure the spears miss their mark. Once the core's health is depleted, it will deflect further sword strikes. When its health is depleted, the Shadow enters a very dangerous "dying" state where it turns red and becomes extremely fast and aggressive. A heartbeat sound can be heard during this state. It has a strong preference for using the Venus flytrap attack at this point in the battle, with good reason: if it catches Dante, it will self-destruct with him inside it, dealing massive damage. In this room, the best way to evade it is to get up on the second-floor walkway that leads to the tomb room, and jump down if if manages to follow. If it is evaded, after a while it will explode. Shadows always drop health, so even if Dante is caught, as long as he survives the explosion he will likely get all the health he lost back again. Once the Shadow is defeated, locate where it died and claim the Orbs as a reward. Another secret mission is now available, Secret Mission 4: The Three Beasts. To attempt this, return to the workshop with the biplane and ride the elevator down to the arena. The mission is to fight three Shadows at once, and the player only gets one attempt per run at the mission (the wheel device will be inactive if Dante dies and uses a Yellow Orb), so it is necessary to reload a save if the player wishes to re-attempt it. It is important not to save before resetting, as this will save the Secret Mission in its "failed" state and render it inaccessible. Killing all three nets another Blue Orb Fragment. After this, go through the small metal door on the back wall of the fountain room, while will now be full of Sin Scythes. This leads into a tall tower. In here are either Marionettes or Sin Scissors to contend with. The main task is to reach the Death Sentence, an ornamental sword on a platform at the top of the tower. The intended way is to drop right to the bottom of the tower, activate the dial and then jump on the elevator platform for a ride to the top, but is is fairly simple to reach the platform with a wall-jump or even a normal jump over the railing at the very top of the stairs instead. With the Death Sentence acquired, enter the higher door in the tower to enter the Castellan's private bedroom. There is a Divinity Statue in here, a Red Orb Cache hidden on top of the bed, and some lore can be read by examining various items in the room, but the main thing to take note of is the female statue with a glowing object in its mouth. Examining this will also Dante to use the Death Sentence and acquire another key item, the Melancholy Soul. As soon as Dante acquires this, a cutscene plays, a mysterious armored knight gesturing for Dante to follow him outside. Doing so and jumping down into the arena will have Dante confront... Boss: Nelo Angelo Nelo Angelo is a powerful swordsman with a massive sword which he can use to block Dante's melee attacks, as well as the ability to teleport. *Taunt: Nelo Angelo frequently taunts Dante on finishing a complete combo sequence. This does nothing for him, and is effectively just a chance for a free hit. *Teleport: Nelo Angelo teleports suddenly, and can attack almost instantly upon materializing. *Block: Nelo Angelo blocks by holding his sword up in front of him. He will either do this immediately on a first hit or after 18-19 combo hits. Blocking makes Nelo Angelo invulnerable to any frontal hits (even from Inferno), but he can still be struck from behind. *Single swing: A mighty swing in a 180-degree arc in front of Nelo Angelo. *Clash counters: Nelo Angelo can only perform these moves in response to a sword clash that fails to stun him. **Clash combo: Nelo Angelo swings his sword back behind him held horizontal, and performs a sweeping left-to-right slash, followed by a High Time. **Deathblow: Nelo Angelo lifts his sword above his head until the tip touches the ground behind him, then brings it crashing down in a single massive blow. Very high damage, but highly telegraphed and easily interrupted. *Four-hit sword combo: Nelo Angelo brandishes his sword, then performs two slashes followed by a double-slash. *Rush: Nelo Angelo points his sword and zooms towards Dante. He usually ends with a Stinger-like stab, but can actually combo this into any of his ground moves, including teleporting away. Best evaded by jumping. *High Time: Nelo Angelo swings his sword in a manner similar to High Time. He can either stay on the ground or do a rising High Time just like Dante: if the latter, he then follows with a downward slash. The length of Nelo Angelo's sword means this is an effective anti-air move. *Fireballs: Nelo Angelo charges up a powerful fireball with a distinctive sound, then hurls it towards Dante. This projectile cannot be deflected, so simply avoid it with a side-roll or jump. He is vulnerable while charging. He can perform this move multiple times in a row. Nelo Angelo is a tricky fight as he deals a lot of damage and any time he blocks he will counter after a very short time. Since Dante does not yet have Ifrit to break his guard, the most effective tactic is to wait for him to block, jump over him and hit him with a Helm Breaker from behind, as he cannot turn around during his sword swings. He is also vulnerable at the end of his sword combos, though he will often teleport away if attacked at this point. He will frequently pause to taunt Dante, and is vulnerable in this state. In addition, when he raises his sword vertically, a hit will put him in a parry state and a further one a brief stun state. He may also respond by shifting into his "upper guard" stance with his sword held behind him above his head and glowing: this means he is about to launch his four-hit counter-combo, so the player should have Dante evade if they see this. The battle occurs in three phases. Phase 1 is out in the courtyard around a fountain, phase 2 up on the castle wall, and phase 3 on a higher section of wall. When swapping phases, Nelo Angelo will teleport to the new location and constantly throw fireballs until Dante reaches him. On repeat playthoughs he is weak to Ifrit since Dante can charge the weapon in order to wait out his blocks and hit him as soon as he tries to attack, or even break his guard with fully charged basic hits, a fully-charged Magma Drive or a fully charged Meteor. While very slow, it is also possible to chip-damage him to death in phases 2 and 3 by shooting him with Ebony & Ivory in a location his fireballs cannot hit. Once he is defeated, the mission ends. Higher difficulties After Phantom, the hallway will spawn either Marionettes or two Shadows just as it did in Mission 2. The "Lion" is no longer a Shadow, instead being a Death Scissors. On Dante Must Die mode it also comes with a 60 second DT timer. Trivia *A common early game Red Orb farming trick is to use the pause menu save option after defeating Phantom in the corridor, then resetting and reloading. The player is returned to the start of the mission, but retains the 500 Red Orb reward. *When Nelo Angelo emerges from the mirror as a "mirror image" of Dante, he is always shown having Alastor on his back, no matter the weapon Dante has equipped.